There’s no catch, Vazquez earns nod

FORT MYERS — There should be no stopping Christian Vazquez now.

Sandy Leon is a good catcher, but yesterday the obvious became crystal clear.

Vazquez is better.

And because he is, he deserves to be the Red Sox’ starting catcher.

The Red Sox don’t like to participate in these types of late-March proclamations, but they’ll come around. They usually do. They have eyes. They saw how Travis Shaw did everything but step on the massive neck of Pablo Sandoval last year in spring training, and gave him the third baseman’s job.

This contest has been closer, with Blake Swihart getting consideration, too, but yesterday Vazquez broke completely loose from the pack.

A putout, a caught-stealing, five innings of catching Chris Sale in another sterling outing, plus a home run were the cherry on top of a spring training in which Vazquez proved he had returned to his pre-Tommy John surgery self.

Showing his quick hands, quicker feet and that cannon of a throwing arm, the phenomenal prospect whose development encountered a massive road bump two spring trainings ago is back at full speed.

Raise that cannon of an arm and call it already. Vazquez won. “Of course,” was Vazquez’ answer to a question if he had proven that he belonged back on the major league roster. “That’s everyone’s goal and I want to help.”

It’s the manager’s decision about who starts, how often and when. And John Farrell, who is slow to name Opening Day starters most years and has been reluctant to say Sandoval has won his old job back, is clearly not the anointing type.

Over the winter and at the beginning of spring training, he kept saying that “as things stand now,” Leon would likely be the primary catcher.

Six weeks or so into spring training, things now stand differently.

The coaching staff and front office needed to let Vazquez prove that he belonged. They saw Vazquez’ laser throws to first, second or third base to catch napping or too-aggressive baserunners.

They can see he is sharper, faster and stronger than last spring, when his arm simply wasn’t ready a year after Tommy John surgery. This year, he and his arm are ready.

“I was aggressive last year, too, the only difference is I was not 100 percent — I had good days, bad days but this year I feel great,” said Vazquez.

Farrell was asked if Vazquez’ spring met or exceeded his expectations.

“I don’t know that he’s exceeded (expectations) because we’ve also known and seen firsthand what he did prior to surgery,” said Farrell after yesterday’s 7-2 Grapefruit League win over the Twins. “You’re always hopeful that the second year off of Tommy John, there’s going to be the less arm-strength swings or the peaks and valleys. That’s been on display. His arm strength is close to where it was pre-surgery. His footwork has been very quick from the first day of camp. He’s come into camp in great shape. He’s doing the things he’s capable of defensively, for sure.”

It’s impossible to underplay how much the Red Sox value defense and run prevention on this year’s team.

Run production will be down without David Ortiz.

David Price is not going to provide 200 innings.

A catcher who can sniff out a runner (like Eddie Rosario yesterday) loitering too far from second base and snap a throw to pick him off to end an inning is the kind of weapon any team would want to have on duty as often as possible.

“That’s my game, controlling the game,” said Vazquez. “The pitcher on the mound — if I don’t do that, after that, something can happen, a blooper, a run scores. It was good.”

Farrell was more effusive than plain old “good.”

“(Vazquez) was lightningquick behind the plate,” said Farrell. “When you think about his ability to shut down a running game, and then to get Chris out of a jam with an inning-ending pickoff at second base, his ability to impact a game from behind the plate was on display (yesterday). Third at-bat, he runs into a fastball down in the strike zone for the difference in this one. When you just look at the ability behind the plate, it’s a special player defensively.”

A note about the home run: It was Vazquez’ first, and first RBI, of the spring, and only his second extrabase hit. Still, that’s two more than Leon, who is also without an RBI in 26 at-bats.

Leon cannot stake a claim to be better than Vazquez in any facet of the game, offensively or defensively.

That’s exactly why Vazquez can stake his claim to be the primary catcher.

Fair and square, he won the job.